Ex-coach guilty of having sex with foster daughter

A Fresno man who admitted
in a police-recorded telephone conversation that he was in love with his
13-year-old foster child was found guilty Wednesday of having sex with the girl
several times inside his home two years ago.

William Green, 33, a
former basketball coach and substitute teacher in Fresno-area schools, also was
found guilty of molesting or annoying another female foster child in 2010.

A jury deliberated about
three hours in Fresno County Superior Court before finding Green guilty of six
felony charges of lewd acts with the 13-year-old girl and three misdemeanor
counts of molesting or annoying the other foster child.

Jurors also found a
special allegation that Green had "substantial sexual contact" with
the 13-year-old. He will have to register as a sex offender after his release.

Green sat impassively in
Judge James Petrucelli's courtroom as the verdict was read.

He faces a minimum of
three years and potentially as many as 20 years in prison when he is sentenced
April 19.

After the verdict,
prosecutor Gabriel Brickey said it was a tough case because of the need to have
underage victims testify. But the result, he said, was good.

The 13-year-old, he said,
"had her day in court."

During the trial, Brickey
said Green would wait until his wife left the house before he had sex with the
13-year-old girl. Green also kissed and rubbed the inner thigh of a 16-year-old
foster child, Brickey said.

A key piece of evidence,
Brickey said, was a telephone call the 13-year-old made to Green. It was
recorded by police.

In the phone conversation,
Green didn't deny having sex with the 13-year-old. Instead, he told the girl
that he loved her and told her not to tell anyone because "his life would
be over," Brickey told the jury.

Brickey talked with jurors
after the verdict and said they found the phone call "strong and
compelling evidence."

Green did not testify in
the trial. But in the recorded conversation, he told the 13-year-old he was
lonely and frustrated with his marriage. "We should have never went there.
It should have never gotten to that point," Green said.

But Green's attorney,
Franz Criego, said there was no physical evidence such as DNA that tied his
client to the alleged sex crimes.

A criminal complaint said
the lewd acts with the 13-year-old occurred from January to July 2010, and the
16-year-old was molested or annoyed in July 2010.

Child Protective Services
removed the foster children from the Green home in the summer of 2010 after the
16-year-old told her social worker. But the 13-year-old kept her feelings to
herself and began cutting her arm, Brickey said.

Before his arrest, Green
was a substitute teacher at several schools in the Fresno Unified School
District, an instructional aide at Roosevelt High and a basketball coach at San
Joaquin Memorial High School. Police have said the alleged molestation did not
happen on a school campus and did not involve any student.

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